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The average audience for the match was 10.7m, according to unofficial figures, with an average of 9.7m seeing ITV1's entire four-hour programme.

Figures were down on the 18.8m who saw the 1999 final between Bayern Munich and Manchester United at its peak.

Sky Sports 1's coverage of Wednesday's game peaked at 1.4m viewers.

At the most watched point of the game, between 2215 and 2230 BST, ITV commanded a 57% audience share.

In multichannel homes the terrestrial channel had a 44.8% audience share - meaning that almost six times as many people chose to see ITV's coverage instead of Sky's.

However, figures do not take into account the huge amount of people who saw the game in pubs and clubs.

Last year's peak viewing audience was England's European Championship quarter-final against Portugal, which drew an audience of 23.9m.